Tag: Boston public relations

Regardless of your political affiliation, I think anyone would agree that no small part of the success of President-Elect Obama’s campaign was due to their groundbreaking use of New Media. While presidential campaigns have been using interactive marketing for several election cycles now, the technology becomes more and more advanced with each one. In 2000, the web was still the new and exciting medium. Everyone knew the magnitude of its power, but we were all still trying to figure out what to do with it (thus the gold rush of the late 90s). Gore and Bush both had professional websites that broadcast information about their positions. Howard Dean took the next step in 2004 by using the internet to raise amounts of money that took all his competitors by surprise.

In this year’s cycle, however, we’ve seen an even more extraordinary leap in the effective use of technology. This year is the first one since what we generally refer to as “new media” has gained a meaningful number of users. Barack Obama and his team recognized this from the start and harnessed it to do so much more than just raise money. Bring in record numbers of money they did, but they also did a lot of things that left McCain’s campaign behind, much the way Kennedy left Nixon behind because of his inherent understanding of television.

So what did he do beyond his regular marketing campaigns and public relations efforts? He ran targeted opt-in text messaging campaigns, twitter updates, RSS Feeds, Blogs, webcasts, podcasts. I wonder if John McCain could even identify what most of those items are. I don’t mean that to be derogatory, rather I mean it to point out the difference in generation. The fact remains that Obama embraced a technology that is no longer in the future. The “present” has arrived for Web 2.0, Search Leveraged Public Relations, PR 2.0, Mobile Marketing and a host of other technologies. Now that we’ve seen how a political candidate can use it well, I’ll be a keen observer of what will come next in 2012.

Welcome to Heat, the official blog of The Leader in New CommunicationsTM – 451 Marketing! If you are unfamiliar with us, I will fill you in:

Back in 2004, a couple of interactive marketing veterans named AJ Gerritson & Nick Lowe recognized a paradigm shift in the world of marketing, advertising & public relations. Rather than sit back and wait to see how it would all take shape, like most firms have done, they decided to get a jump on the competition. With a phone line and a couple of PCs, the two enterprising lads founded 451 Marketing – an agency that could offer companies a way to better connect and engage their customers through a combined new media and traditional communications approach that utilized both advertising and public relations. Turns out they were on to something. The agency has grown substantially since then – with an award-wining design team, cutting-edge new media specialists and *ahem* one talented and well connected public relations team – 451 Marketing has emerged as The Leader in New Media CommunicationsTM. We have created a targeted and fully-integrated communications approach that harnesses new technology to ensure that a client’s message breaks through the noise and is heard clearly by their customers. If you don’t believe me, ask our satisfied clients.

Where did the “451” in 451 Marketing come from you ask? No it’s not the address of their first office (would you really want to hire an agency that was that obvious?). And no, it’s not because when added together the numbers equal a Perfect 10 (although Nick is a big Sudoku fan). See, the number comes from the temperature at which paper burns – 451 degrees Fahrenheit! Advertising on paper is so 2003! It’s a good thing these guys recognized this, because they subsequently found that the brands they’ve created and communicated over the past four years have been so hot that they’re too hot for paper!

The 451 Marketing Heat blog will be a place for the new media junkies over here at 451 to muse, discuss and sometimes rant about the things that get us going! Please check in often, read what we have to say and feel free to tell us what you think, because the beauty of new media is that it’s interactive!